Monday, March 19, 2012

Almost exactly two months after signing our new lease, we are ready for a soft-opening at 540 Delaware Avenue on Wednesday at 8am!
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Our new building sign! As soon as the buildling department gives us the go ahead, we'll get it hung.

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So many people have helped us get here, not the least of which is the Community Loan Fund of the Capital Region, who helped us shape our business plan and funded our move. We are indebted to everyone who has supported us in a myriad of ways as we have approached this stage of growth. We are coming off the adreneline rush of having accomplished everything required to get the new shop open, and we are ready to begin baking again!

Our regular hours will be Wed-Fri 8am - 3pm and Sat-Sun 9am - 3pm. We've hired two friendly, wonderfully capable people to give us a hand (Liz for front of the house, formerly at Mezzo Marketplace and Lauren who recently graduated from the Culinary Institute as Nick's Sous Chef). Liz and Lauren share our passion for fresh, local, sustainable foods and we are confident they will be very valuable first additions to our work family. Please give them a warm welcome them when you visit!

Our new retail area accommodates 10 seats inside and we'll be adding at least two patio tables outside to start. Nick has created an a-la-carte lunch menu of Six Seasonal Sandwiches (3 grilled cheeses for $5.00 and 3 vegan/vegetarian for $5.50/$6.00) that will also include seasonally-based soup and salads ($2.50-$5). We are sourcing biodegradable, compostable packaging for lunches to go and should get our first shipment within a couple of weeks (till then our ability to package soups and salad to go will be limited). Parking is available in our lot or on the street, we are in the same building as The Yoga Loft, next to Mingle.

"Little Green Monsters"

Our Muffins & Scone varieties will continue to change depending on what's available from our farmers, and we will prepare our Bialys, Cinnamon Buns, Energy Treats and Tartlets daily. Nick will prepare his Soft Pretzels as time allows and our Saturday & Sunday Brunch menu will consist of Croissants (Traditional and Pan Au Chocolat), Quiche with local/seasonal ingredients and our own crust, Savory Bread Pudding, Savory & Sweet Philmores (stuffed croissant dough), likely French Toast and Pancakes, and specialty sides like Seitan Hash (as time goes on, we'll also offer a few other specials Nick has up his sleeve). We'll continue using hyper-local, responsibly sourced ingredients as often as humanly possible and making our own butter every week (hopefully adding biscuits soon - we need to use up that buttermilk on something besides scones!).

Everything we serve will continue to be made fresh, from scratch. And of course, THERE WILL BE BREAD, all of which Nick will prepare himself! We intend to offer daily: Hearty Multigrain, Honey Whole Wheat, Rye (with molasses & caraway), Ciabatta, Country French Sourdough and a Specialty Loaf that we call a "Baker's Pick", which Nick will change up based on inspiration and inclination.

For Beverages, we'll serve regular and decaf fair-trade, organic coffee from Hudson River Coffee House, a small variety of teas, local apple cider and our own fruit waters. We've also added a light weekday breakfast menu of toast and butter/jam/peanut butter, bialys with cream cheese and a kid's menu of a few sandwiches.

Travis from Organica (an organic growing supplies shop on Delaware Ave., next to Ultra Violet) is setting us up with a hydroponic garden in our kitchen (visible from our sidewalk window, take a peek!) where we will grow organic and heirloom herbs and a variety of lettuces, right on the premesis! We're pretty sure no other restaurant in Albany has a hydroponic garden - Travis will be helping us maintain it and he can help you too if you'd like an indoor setup. It's fun growing food, if you haven't tried it we recommend it.

Planting will begin very soon!

We will continue to rent to other small food producers looking to get a leg up. Katherine Hunter from Three Smiles Kitchen will be preparing her new Seitan for us and for the Saturday Delmar Farmers Market. Gatherer's Granola is still with us for a little while while their new production space is readied, and there are a one or two other producers we're in talks with.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will get our staff and organizational processes up to speed and soon after, we'll have a big Grand Opening Party, including a ribbon cutting with the Community Loan Fund! Our street signage should be complete by then and we'll hopefully work out any kinks in operations quickly.

We look forward to seeing you for opening week, starting this Wednesday at 8am! Time to make the butter!